I am currently in college and new to Buddhism. I am having a hard time finding a good place and time to meditate. I am looking for any advice. My dorm room gets way to much traffic and noise, and it's to hard to truly set aside a time. My room mate and his girlfriend aren't really accepting of it.

He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: 'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' (Jhana Sutta - Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation)

I once saw a guy sitting down meditating in the middle of an over-crowded footpath in the Sydney CBD. However, if that's not your style...

At night in the dark after everyone's gone to sleep sitting on your bed is good, too. (or in the early morning) You might want to invest in some earplugs if the traffic noise is very bad.

Is there a monastery or Buddhist organisation near where you live where laypeople can use the facilities? Does your college/university have a multi-faith prayer room? Might be worth a look, at least to see if anyone actually uses it besides Muslims. Or, if you're happy to meditate on a pew, there's nothing stopping you from using churches which are open to the public for contemplation (if you have such churches where you live).

You could try less-busy public parks or secluded natural areas, if you're fine with that. (Personally, I'm not.)

Or acquire a Buddhist friend and go to his or her house. ^^ <- I like this idea best. Kalyanamitta.

I'm not very good at right speech, although I try, so please guide and correct me if necessary so I don't make bad kamma for myself and cause others to be annoyed. (=

Thank you so much for all the responses. Sadly the Buddhist community where I live is minimal and 40 minutes away. It would be hard for me to take that drive every day plus meditate. So I will try the library, I wish there was some way to know who else was a Buddhist on campus, every other faith has a group except Buddhist. Thank you all again, may you all be peaceful, happy, and well.

zpweston wrote:Thank you so much for all the responses. Sadly the Buddhist community where I live is minimal and 40 minutes away. It would be hard for me to take that drive every day plus meditate. So I will try the library, I wish there was some way to know who else was a Buddhist on campus, every other faith has a group except Buddhist. Thank you all again, may you all be peaceful, happy, and well.

Hi zpweston and welcome to Dhamma Wheel

Feel free to start a Buddhist group on campus!

You can begin by making flyers and posting them around campus. State on the flyer that you're interested in getting together with others who are interested in Buddhism. Put your contact info on the flyer so they can get in touch with you (an email address is fine if you don't want to give out number and address).

After some time, you may get in touch with a few people. Then you can go from there. I think most colleges have a minimum number of members rule for new student groups. At my school (Missouri), our group received a small amount of money from student fees (but we were also lead by a monk professor...).

In any case, even if you can't start an actual student organization, you can at least use the flyers to get in touch with other Buddhists on campus. Does your school utilize a campus email upcoming events message? See if you can get a message on there as well.

Does you school have a rec center or gym that offers yoga classes? If so, chances are there's one or two people attending who are interested in Buddhism and/or Eastern spirituality. What about other gyms in the city? I bet if you asked the yoga instructor to say a quick word before class starts, you could announce to the class that you're interested in starting a Buddhist group on campus and if anyone wants to help, stay after so you can talk with them.

It is pretty important to do meditation in a relatively undistracting environment. I first started meditation in my dorm at college, but we had individual bedrooms. I can imagine it being v. hard if you have to share.

Like the others above offered, try to start a meditation club, and your college will offer you regular rooms pace. Otherwise there are probably low use buildings on campus which can offer a quiet space, e.g. the law school library, or a reading room of some obscure department.

walking meditation is also very good and you can probably find some corner of an out of the way sports field or something.

universities are pretty progressive places, and you can likely find a meditation group.